The Wagyu breed came to the U.S. in the 1980s. Hansen said monitoring the rare breed in the U.S. can be difficult, but some say there are less than 30,000 full-blood Wagyu in the United States.

When Eastridge came to OSU in 1986, there were five breeds of dairy cows: Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss and Ayrshire. Shortly after he arrived, the farm got rid of all but the Holstein ...